Just do the workout the next morning at 9 am. i.e this probably only happens at the start of a new week. If the first workout of the week isn’t ‘available’ before your preferred time on Monday, make Monday your rest day, and pick up on Tuesday at 9 am. For me, this has never been an issue - because I do the bulk of my workouts at night during the week and by the time I get to the weekend, all of the remaining workouts for the week have already been unlocked.
You’ll find that most of the time you’ll have at least one (and probably more) workouts in the plan’s week to choose from on any given day, and a window spanning a few different days to complete them by. I tend to complete them in order of whichever has the earliest ‘complete by’ date, unless the length of the workout doesn’t align with how much time I have on a given day.
Just try to stick with the plan and you’ll get a feel for the flexibility built in. If you miss a workout in the meantime while you’re trying to sort it out - don’t sweat it. Just keep going!
Could you consider build me Up as a base phase?
Or is it too much intensity towards the end?
I bailed out after 8 weeks, wanting to do more zwift races instead.
For next autumn/Winter im considering trying to stack Up.
Build me Up
TT tune Up
Crit crusher
And hopefully ready for some serious racing after that.
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Put some power pedals and compare results with Wahoo power. Pedals should read a higher value to account for transmission losses. Wahoo kickr was reading too high even after multiple spindown calibrations. Doing the “factory spindown” calibration solved everything and now Wahoo kickr is giving realistic results (i.e. ~2% lower than my Assioma pedals)
Anyone know how best to tackle the 5 second intervals in one of the final workouts? I am guessing ERG would struggle to react to this and cause me to lose the stars?
If you do most of your workout in the small front and middle back then you can jump 1 sec before the 5sec interval start, change gears to big front and small rear.
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About to finish the plan and it may be the fatigue talking but I don’t feel like I will see a big increase on FTP. I’ll do a test next week so not long before I know. I plan to ride so that I start my FTP 20 minute test at the start of a climb. Is the Epic KOM the longest climb with no substantial reduction on incline? The Alpe has the hairpins and much as I like climbing it I don’t think it’s the best option for the test. Any suggestions?
Also, I am an indoors kind of guy and I prefer workouts on Zwift. I enjoyed the Build Me Up and I was thinking of starting it again with the new FTP.
The 20 min test section does turn ERG off but it does not simulate the inclines, you need to controll the resistance with the incline button on the Companion app or the in game menu (the one at the bottom of the screen) or the ± keys on your KB.
So you can pick any route. I like to pic a quiet route like the epic KOM, pushing hard going up feel good.
Hi Gerrie,
I have a controllable trainer so no issues with controlling resistance. Like you I feel I can put out more power going uphill so I want the longest uninterrupted incline. Not sure if it is the Epic KOM or the Innsbruck climb.
Cheers!
Hi
pretty new to zwifting here. My partner and I are on week 7 and really enjoying the challenge of this programme. Neither of us have done any real structured bike training before and as a consequence have found the high cadence sections awkward to get a handle on. It does feel kinder on the knees than our usual mashing though! Im more of an endurance rider (TCR couple of times) so am hoping the programme will up the FTP allowing me to ride faster on those long days in the saddle. I did (foolishly perhaps) take another FTP in the early weeks of the programme and as others who have also done this have mentioned the new higher FTP leaves you right on limit. I think the extra session of the FTP test also interferes with the recovery time going forward. We are sharing a bike on the trainer for convenience which is a little crowded for me but still doable. I’m curious to know if a better fit would make any real difference when inside on the trainer. Its a big fun part of our week right now. Equal measures of chatting about our rides, trepidation for whats next and exclamations about how difficult each session was. We plan to ride through to the end and hopefully gains will have been made.
- List item
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I just did the first one. I really liked the cadence coaching. I’m a bit of a masher, and sustaining repeats of 2 mins of 100rpm at 90% FTP in the 3rd 12-min block, was a nice challenge and valuable exercise.
I’m planning to do these at lunch every weekday: Mon-Fri, and leave Saturday for outdoors riding, and Sunday as a rest day. Any thoughts if 5 back-to-back workouts every week is too agressive?
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Hi all, I’m new to zwift, started in March. FTP was around 175W and weight 78kg. I tried it before, around 2 years ago, but couldn’t get into it. Lockdown left me with no other option. I started with the crit crusher program and after completing FTP 215W. I then started FTP builder and just finished my 5th week. Tough as hell! I still feel zwift is harder vs the road, but did my normal Sunday 45km ride and my average speed was around 3kms faster. Weight is now 70kg and clocked nearly 3000km on zwift. Looking forward to the next 7 weeks 
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Just a couple minor points: There won’t be 5 workouts to do every week. Most weeks, in fact, there are only 4 (and I think there are two ‘regeneration’ weeks w/ only 3 easy ones).
You can review the entire plan, week-by-week here: Zwift workouts: Build Me Up | What's on Zwift?
Now… on the subject of 5 workouts back-to-back being too aggressive? I’d say yes. Or, at least, “Probably!” You won’t hit 5/wk until you get into the meat of the plan, and then at least one or two of the workouts are 90 min or more. I’ll stop short of saying you can’t do them all in 5 consecutive days, but you probably won’t want to unless you’re already very fit and highly motivated. And, if you do it, I hope that saturday ride is a well & truly mellow recovery spin - because you probably should have more than one rest day. Listen to your body. If you’re mid-plan and you feel like you need a day off? Take it.
Good luck!
Thanks Joe!! I do see the workouts are also time throttled. For example, I just finished the 3rd workout today. Pedaling Drills is available tomorrow (Tuesday), and then Devedeset isn’t available until Thursday. So it is going to keep be honest. Maybe I could override that, but I’ll stick with the forced “rest” days and do something fun/easy. I am training for a 444 mile Ultra race Oct 3rd (which I won last year, but it was a small field), so I’m pretty fit - but have never done structured workouts, ever. During this Shelter @ Home time, I’ve come to really enjoy trainer time in the garage. Saturdays are longer rides, over 100 miles - but Zone 2 for the most part. Again, thank you for the great insight.
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Build me up
Did 90% workouts - penultimate week I missed because I was exhausted from week before and also didn’t have a bike.
Would highly recommend. Just is great discipline / and probably superb during winter. Did with a friend at same time which was great for comparison and motivation. My technique and cadence improved drastically and saw those results on the road. Would and will do again at my new ftp after the summer.
Stats:
Start date: 30 April 2020
Starting weight: 79kg
Starting FTP: 248
W/kg: 3.13
Finish: 22 July 2020
Weight: 77kg
FTP: 284
W/kg: 3.69
I got zwift in January and my first ftp was 174. I did do quite a lot outdoor previous two years however.
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Nice results, @Pedro_CAMERON! Congratulations 
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Hey all
So I just finished this program yesterday. I am a mountain biker primarily and rode a lot a number of years ago. Anyway I purchased my trainer and jumped straight into this plan. Initial FTP was 223 ( my Ego kicked in and I upped it to 230) first couple of weeks for were rough. The workouts didn’t seem to crazy but my legs were sore as hell. Thanks EGO. Either way I stuck with it.
I had a couple issues with the program as a whole. My schedule at work is 48 hrs on and 96 hrs off. So I had to squeeze the workouts in on the 96 hrs off meaning I had to do two rides in a day on a couple of occasions and not always being able to select which workouts to do on the same day ( one hard one easy) made it difficult. That and having a 1 year old at home and trying to do these rides when he naps didn’t make for a great experience of time management. I did skip a couple of the rides to go outdoors to keep from staring at my basement walls too much lol. Either way for my schedule it was a little difficult at times but doable with discipline. I was also considering upping my FTP towards the end of the plan as the rides deff got more difficult but didn’t feel like they were pushing me during the rides themselves, I didn’t do it. I was also trying to do weights or Yoga at work if I could or use the 48 hrs as recovery. So last week (final week of plan) I was extremely fatigued and I think this was in part due to me not being able to space out my recovery days Throughout the plan and having to ride everyday of my four day throughout the plan. I did the easy recovery rides In the final week which remarkably made me feel so much better. I Redid the FTP and jumped to 278. Not what I was hoping for but definitely a decent increase. I am now planning on a week or two easy with outdoor riding. Then maybe the singletrack slayer program. I hope to see the same gains.
Overall I think it is not as flexible as I would like but was interesting and different for me. With notable gains. I would recommend it.
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+55 watts in twelve weeks wasn’t what you were hoping for lol? At least no one can blame you for not being ambitious. Good work.
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Lol yeah I figured as I was new (again) I would see more change. I was hoping for closer to 300, maybe next time round. I should just be happy with improvement and expect more over the long term you’re right lol.
I did almost exactly the same as you - finished 2 weeks ago and went from 226W to 276W and I was happy with that. I think you’re being a bit hard on yourself!